Until about 2006 we did
not have an official robotics team and were just merely a small
club of students interested in robotics. From our humble
beginnings, we were allotted a small space within the abandoned
wood shop at the Ewing High School. Through generous sponsorship
from Johnson and Johnson, Janssen, Wachovia, and NASA we were able
to fund ourselves and become a full fledged robotics team with
just 15 team members. With just a small crew to start off with we
went above and beyond expectations, even claiming the 2007 Rookie
All Star Award, which celebrates the rookie team exemplifying a
young but strong partnership effort, as well as implementing the
mission of FIRST to inspire students to learn more about science
and technology. Being the "rookie" did not hold us back
and through our success we made an increased effort to expand and
grow FIRST Team 2016.
2007-2008
We geared up for our
2nd year as a full fledged robotics team, but unfortunately due to
space constraints we were unable to use our old facility at the
Ewing High School. Thankfully the Marie Katzenbach School for the
death graciously allowed us to use their shop space which was
extremely valuable to the team. It was at this point in time that
we found our partnership with the Deaf School to be the defining
backbone that would help us make a unique change in FIRST. This
would eventually become the stepping stone to make our debut with
project IFADS. While being only a recently created team we were
able to stun everyone through our expert design which landed us
with the title of being the 2nd fastest robot in the entire world.
We came out as victors in the Chesapeake regional and eventually
became a finalist within the Newton Division at the championships.
2008-2009
No longer considering
ourselves just a rookie team, we expanded our goals in order to
acknowledge the FIRST mission. For the first time, our team had an
official Chairman’s subteam in order to take the on unique
challenges required to obtain the Chairman’s award, which became
a main focus and goal. We strived to be the model team in which
other teams could emulate, while causing a significant change not
only within the culture of FIRST but within the world itself. To
accomplish this, we launched Project IFADS, (Increasing First
Awareness in Deaf Schools) in order to get the FIRST message out
to the Deaf community, through our unique relationship with the
Marie Katzenbach School for the Deaf. However, due to technical
difficulties we were unable to submit our Chairman’s essay but
our unique outlook won us the 2009 New Jersey Regional Judges
Award. Furthermore, with the inclusion of deaf students on our
team the first step towards the integration of the Deaf Community
within FIRST had been taken. On the technical side we faced some
major design challenges and time constraints which ultimately led
to our substandard performance that year with the robot. However,
taking these failures with stride we vowed never to repeat the
same mistakes again
2009-2010
Learning from our
technical mistakes from the previous year we made it a priority to
organize ourselves as a successful and effective team. At kickoff
we were divided into "funky monkey teams" or Functional
Monkey teams which allowed the influx and inclusion of new ideas
and spread out the responsibilities of each function, overcoming
the disorganization we faced in the previous year. Because we were
able to effectively organize our resources we became very
successful that year, becoming finalists at the New Jersey
Regional and even gaining the championship at the Dallas Regional
while winning the Excellence in Engineering Award. While it was
our 2nd year officially doing Chairman’s we built off of the
framework of the previous year and made numerous connections,
reaching out to Deaf Schools and asking the FIRST program to
provide closed captioning for kick- off in order to further
integrate the Deaf community into the FIRST program. Our
dedication to the deaf community caught the eye of FIRST at the
Dallas regional, which allowed us to win the Dallas Regional
Chairman’s Award. We ended up going to the championships and
leaving with nothing but this motivated us and pushed us to outdo
ourselves the next season.
2010-2011
This season was
probably our defining moment as a team, building upon the multiple
successes of previous years which sent us flying to the top,
nearing the pinnacle of the FIRST program. Compounding on our
technical success from the previous year, we did not stay lax or
rest on our laurels. Instead, filled with new "young
blood" holding many of the team’s leadership positions, we
quickly got to work putting our minds to the metal, figuratively
speaking, to create the most advanced machine we had ever created.
With a combination of sleek design, expert programming, and
skillful wiring and building, our robot became the prime example
for other teams to follow. We rolled into the New Jersey Regional
determined to win becoming nearly an unstoppable force. It was no
surprise when we came out on top, becoming the new champions. We
pulled it off again in Washington D.C. and became finalists, but
our crowning moment came at the St. Louis Championships. We came
out as victors in our division and even made it to the finals
clinching the National Championship Finalist position, coming in
2nd place in the entire world. It became clear then, that we were
officially a world class team. We also continued to push hard with
Chairman’s, making the connections we gained the previous year
count reaching out to even more Deaf Schools and making contact
without local government officials, such as our congressman Rush
Holt. We also had a huge influx of new Deaf students joining the
FIRST program, as the barriers which formerly held them back began
to disappear. Unfortunately one of our long time mentors, Richard
Prospero, lost his battle with cancer and passed away. This
prompted us to dedicate our robot too him, but we are sure he
would be extremely proud of our achievements thus far.
